Okay, everyone. We're looking at the following as a schedule. This is all tentative, and cdcox will update it as he gets all of the pieces in place.

Early next week you'll get an option to re-sign up to two departing free agents.

You'll also get your annual infusion of free agent dollars, which I think we've set at $450. This will be used to sign rookies in the next week, but also free agents over the next several months, so spend wisely. Any dollars you're holding from last year will carry forward, but with a 50% tax.

You'll have two days to sign free agents.

At the same time (give or take a day), we'll put the rookie draft up. The universe will consist of anyone who was drafted. Any undrafted rookies can be signed in the free agency period to follow. You can put your draft board together to prepare.

Draft day will start later in the week. Are there any strong preferences for the day of week? Candidates will likely be Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday (September 5th through 8th), with a likely preference for Friday here at Sandbox headquarters. Unless there's a huge outcry or quiet technical problem, we'll shoot for Friday the 6th.

When the draft starts, we will have one hour per pick. cdcox is trying to set up an e-mail notification, but we would advise you to have your draft board ready and monitor frequently. If you don't make your pick and don't have a draft board ready, you will draft the highest-drafted player still on the board, even if it's a Bronco or Raider.

Okay, we are good to go for the next steps. (no email went out for league 1, due to a technical error).

We are gearing up for another exciting year of Sandbox Simulations. You have
an immediate important task to complete. You can sign up to two (2) of your
players whose contracts have expired to new long term contracts. Go to the manage roster page of your sandbox team, set the contract length for the player(s) you want to keep using the selector, and then click the sign all contracts button. Remember that you can only extend two players. You are required to sign them to a contract of 5 or more years. The cost of the contract can be seen in the table at the top of
manage roster page. You need to complete this task before the draft starts.
At that time, all players with zero years remaining on their contracts will
becoem free agents.

DO NOT RELEASE ANY PLAYERS AT THIS TIME UNLESS YOU ARE
SURE YOU DO NOT WANT TO RETAIN THEM THROUGH FREE AGENCY.

The other big event coming up is the 2013 rookie draft. It will start on
Friday at 6:00 PM EDT. In the mean time, you can set your draft board to get
ready for the draft.

League wide roster. You can see which players are on which teams, and the length of their contract. You can sort by contract length, any one with a 0 year contract will be a free agent, unless their owner resigns them before the draft.

DO NOT RELEASE ANY PLAYERS AT THIS TIME UNLESS YOU ARE
SURE YOU DO NOT WANT TO RETAIN THEM THROUGH FREE AGENCY.

An explanation:

If you leave a player with a zero year contract on your roster through free agency, once the winning bid is determined, you'll be given a chance to match it and keep the player. BUT if you release the player you'll lose that right. Just let them sit on your roster without a contract. I want to make this a little more idiot proof, but didn't have time to code anything for now.

DO NOT RELEASE ANY PLAYERS AT THIS TIME UNLESS YOU ARE
SURE YOU DO NOT WANT TO RETAIN THEM THROUGH FREE AGENCY.

An explanation:

If you leave a player with a zero year contract on your roster through free agency, once the winning bid is determined, you'll be given a chance to match it and keep the player. BUT if you release the player you'll lose that right. Just let them sit on your roster without a contract. I want to make this a little more idiot proof, but didn't have time to code anything for now.

So...if you have a player that you would like to keep, but not necessarily for a 5 year contract, you could leave them unsigned, and then if someone only bids enough for a 2 year contract and wins it, then you can come in and match it and keep them for that? Risk is that if someone really bids it up and it goes over 5 years, then you either have to let them have them, or pay even more than you were wavering on for a 5 year.